Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (Finnish:Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana), also translated as Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana, is a 1994Finnish/German film directed, produced and co-written by Aki Kaurismäki. The film tells the story of two shy and unaccomplished middle-aged men who run away from their mothers' homes and drive aimlessly on the back roads of Finland.

Plot

Valto (Mato Valtonen) is a meek middle-aged man who lives with his mother and works for her out of their home. An ex-rock musician who still dreams of being a rock star, Valto has no other aspirations in life except his great love of coffee. When his mother runs out of coffee and refuses to go out and buy more, Valto becomes infuriated and locks her in a cupboard. He steals her money, leaves the house and meets up with his like-minded friend Reino (Matti Pellonpää), another middle aged ex-rock musician. Reino's only passion is drinking vodka and, as he and Valto get into Valto's car and drive away, Reino is drinking vodka straight from the bottle as Valto drinks coffee he made in a coffee maker that he had installed in his car.

The two don't speak much until they are stopped by two hitchhikers: the thin Tatiana (Kati Outinen) from Estonia and the chunky Klavdia (Kirsi Tykkyläinen) from Russia. The four of them spend the next few days travelling together without much conversation. Even thought the two girls are outgoing and would like to get to know the two men, Valto and Reino are too shy to communicate with the girls and, instead, choose to ignore them as they keep drinking their coffee and vodka.